The Oxford High School Tragedy and the Free Fall of Morality
Authored by Becky Behrends, published in American Thinker on December 5, 2021
Michigan citizens are reeling from the recent tragic events at Oxford High School with the shooting deaths of students. Religious and morally oriented members of the public have realized for some time that Americans are on a very slippery slope with regard to observance of the rule of law, moral behavior, respect and kindness for one’s neighbor and a sense of civic duty. In reality, what we are seeing is not inching down a slippery slope but a plunge off a cliff!
An all-too-familiar event of violence and death has occurred again and the usual debates about gun control vs. Second Amendment rights will occur.
When the argument is made that people kill people, not guns, the liberal left fails to look at what has happened to people such that they could reach such a level of depravity as to randomly kill others. Not enough jobs in the community? Poverty? Dysfunctional childhood? As for poverty, conventional wisdom may have it all backwards. Maybe crime itself causes poverty and thus creates a vicious circle. The issues are far deeper than politically correct soundbites.
Warning signs were there as we learn of the 15-year-old shooter leaving a drawing on his desk of a gun pointing at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” Also, a drawing of a bullet, with the words above it, “Blood everywhere.” Between the gun and the bullet was a drawing of a person who appeared to have been shot twice and is bleeding. More words: “My life is useless” and “The world is dead.” Teachers saw this note as well as observing that he was searching for ammunition on his phone. In response to this, the boy’s mother texted “just next time, don’t get caught.” No concerns whatsoever.
Now school officials and teachers are on the hot seat for failure to alert law enforcement regarding this. Parents fled the“crime scene” but are now in custody with a charge of involuntary manslaughter. And so the tragedy unfolds.
How did we get here as a society? How did the evil-minded camel get its head in the tent of moral rectitude? What role does the lack of religious observance, or the failure to acknowledge the existence of God, to whom we will one day be accountable, play in this ongoing disaster? How much pornography, graphic violence and sex in movies, failed marriages, out of wedlock births, crime, greed and lack of concern for community wellbeing do we need to see before realizing we cannot simply say, “it’s none of my business.” It should be the business of all of us! Private acts have public consequences.
The bicoastal elite “wine and cheese” leftist ideologues glorify the idea of free speech, but only as they define it. Meanwhile, they too often peddle their dysfunctional wares onto society as freedom to promote the debased, profane, violent and perverted and we are supposed to buy it hook, line and sinker! If Hollywood and the politically correct sink into the sewer, let’s jump in with them. After all, isn’t “equity” the new buzz word? Equal outcomes! But what good is equality if we are all equally rotten? It is simply immoral groupthink on steroids that we are being prodded into accepting as the norm.
Why do we accept every ideology and moral perversion as just a “variant” (to use vaccine parlance)? Maybe not lethal, but something to be “watched”? Just part of the big tent diversity we have been indoctrinated into believing is necessary and healthy to a free society. We have been watching the rollout of morally perverted variants for decades now and we sound the alarm when the obvious consequences start mounting? As if we didn’t know what would happen?
We have grown up with the notion that a compromise can be reached on any moral issue which is acceptable. Compromise will abolish enmity and division. The problem is this simply is not true. Moral relativism has led to this false notion. There are absolute truths in the moral realm just as there are in the physical. A box dropped off the top of a building will hit bottom; gravity will absolutely see to that! Similarly, there are truths in the moral realm that cannot be circumvented or ignored. How do you compromise on the issue of abortion? Abort half the fetus and leave the other half intact? Absurd to say the least! Many issues in life demand that we rise up and take a stand. Yes, there is such a thing as good and evil, right vs wrong. And the critical question we need to be asking as a society is, “where will this lead?” as we are bombarded with the cultural dregs of entertainment, speech, behavior and conduct. We need to show some indignation and outrage early on and not wait until society reaches a critical mass of explosive and tragic outcomes.
The police theory of “broken windows” concludes that you need to enforce low level crimes to prevent more serious crimes.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Man’s destined purpose is to conquer all habits, to overcome the evil in him and to restore good to its rightful place.” And the wise King Solomon taught, “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Prov. 22:6) Good and moral thoughts lead to good habits which leads to good character. We need leaders in all walks of life to take to the bully pulpit to change the culture toward this direction.
Henry David Thoreau wisely observed that “there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root…”
It is time for many more citizens to join in the fight and strike at the roots of evil. Sadly, the village of Oxford, Michigan may never be the same again having lost its small town aura of innocence and safety.
We don’t need to accept that. As Americans, we can and must do better!